Image sensing apparatuses such as an electronic camera which uses a memory card having a solid-state memory element as a recording medium, and records, plays back, and/or communicates still and moving images are commercially available. Image sensing systems which store sensed images in a World Wide Web (WWW) server connected to a wide area network such as the Internet and lay open the images to the public are also constructed. Network printers which print images stored in the WWW server are also put on the market. Photo print services are offered which transmit sensed image data to a print laboratory technician via the WWW server and allow a user to receive printed photos at a shop.
The image sensing system allows transmitting images stored in the WWW server to a network printer or print laboratory technician connected to the Internet and printing the images.
There is also examined a business model which suggests selling electronic cameras at, e.g., a convenience store or sightseeing place at relatively low cost, earning a profit by repetitive use of photo print services via a portable telephone network or network, and recovering the cost of electronic cameras sold at low cost.
The system which transmits image data to a print laboratory technician and allows a user to receive photo prints at a shop suffers cumbersome personal identification when the print laboratory technician reliably hands photo prints.
If a profit is to be earned by selling an electronic camera or the like at low cost, but the electronic camera or the like is discarded after image data is transmitted to the print laboratory technician via a portable telephone network or network, the cost of the sold electronic camera or the like cannot be recovered.
The user can also bring a recording medium which stores sensed images to the shop of the print laboratory technician and order photo printing by a simple procedure similar to conventional silver halide photo printing. However, the storage capacity of the recording medium restricts the number of photographable images. To sense many images, the user must prepare many large-capacity recording media.